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20th December 2019

The Femicide Census

The latest Femicide Census report, published in December 2018, reveals that 139 women killed by men in 2017, and 40% of cases featured ‘overkilling’. Three quarters (76%, 105) of women killed by men were killed by someone they knew; 30 women were killed by a stranger, of whom 21 were killed in a terrorist attack.

By collating femicides, we can see that these killings are not isolated incidents, too many of them follow a repeated pattern. Many were committed in similar locations (59%, 82 women were killed at their home or the home they shared with the perpetrator), a sharp instrument was used as a weapon in 66 cases, and nearly half (46%, 64) of women killed by men were killed by a current or former intimate partner.

For the first time, the Femicide Census has collected data on incidents of overkilling, where the force and/or methods used by the perpetrator was greater than that required to kill the victim.

Overkilling was evident in four in ten (42%, 58) cases where women were killed by men in 2017, according to data collected by the latest Femicide Census report from court and media reports.

One report stated that a victim had been stabbed 175 times, while several victims were described in reports as being “hit 40 times with an axe”, “bludgeoned repeatedly” and “battered virtually beyond all recognition”.

By viewing these cases of femicide all together, we can learn what needs to be done to reduce, and ultimately prevent, the killing of women by men.